“It’s just spam really”

I’d bet money that what I’m about to show you in this email is why you’re not marketing your services more assertively (or perhaps not marketing at all).

(Former) list member Andy had some feedback for me on a recent email:

—Hi

I really enjoyed your book but these drips are awful
Can’t be the same writer surely?
It’s just spam really

Can you switch drips for me to something well
Written or take me off?

Thanks

Andy
—

Getting “feedback” like this really stings. I felt bad about this one for a full 24 hours afterwards.

As you know (or will soon learn if you’re new to my list) I market my products and services *very* assertively via this list. I work hard to make each email valuable in some way (information, entertainment, or a mix of both), and I conclude almost every email with a sales pitch for a thing I sell.

Even with this assertive level of selling in my emails, I get a nastygram like this 2 or 3 times a year at most.

Think about that. Are you concerned that stepping up your marketing efforts for your services will result in negative or hostile feedback like the above? If so, so what?!?!

Aren’t the results of more effective marketing worth enduring a bit of discomfort? Are you going to let a few critical comments from strangers keep you from telling others about the value you offer?

To put things in a larger context, here are the actual crappy and destructive things I endured as a result of not marketing my services properly:

Feast/famine revenue dynamic for about 5 years. Even something as simple as planning a vacation was difficult or impossible for me.

Nearly constant stress about money and future stability that wore down my health and sense of optimism.

Saying “yes” to clients I knew I should have said “no” to but I needed the money so I put up with them anyway.

Actual negative financial consequences in the form of a bankruptcy and foreclosure I had to deal with, which led to 7 years of not-fun stuff like a terrible credit score, etc.

There’s more, but you get the picture.

For me, learning about positioning and effective lead generation techniques were the keys that stabilized my business and increased profitability. Yeah, I had to work at it too. 🙂 The hard work part should go without saying. Yeah, those two things are not the only things that improved my business. But they were absolutely instrumental.

If you have only a beginner level of expertise, you can dramatically improve your business by focusing your marketing on a target market.

If you have more client experience and specialized expertise, you can get clients coming to you by focusing your marketing on a particularly painful problem.